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Tuesday, July 08, 2014

It's Official, Ballard Blames Taxpayers For Indy's Crime Problem

I've been warning you for months now that Mayor Greg "Public Safety Is Job One" Ballard would blame you for not paying enough in taxes as the cause of Indianapolis' soaring homicide rate. It only took one more dead police officer before the pathological liar stepped forward to exploit Officer Perry Renn's death as an excuse for raising income taxes and abolishing the homestead property tax credit to hire more police officers. The spineless mayor actually sent out Public Safety Director Troy Riggs and his grossly unqualified Chief of Police Rick Hite to call for higher taxes, alongside the FOP leadership which is only concerned about getting that big pay raise the Ballard administration has promised its membership if they go along with the phony call for higher taxes to support hiring more police officers. WTHR reports:

Riggs called for an elimination of the homestead tax credit to help pay for 100-200 new officers. "We have to have new revenue," he said.

In all, IMPD needs $25 million. Aside from the homestead tax credit being eliminated, leaders called for a public safety tax increase. That would pay for a total of 250 additional officers. That would translate to someone making $50,000 a year paying an additional $65 a year.

"For less than the price of a cup of coffee each week," said Snyder, IMPD could get the hundreds of officers it needs. "But somebody has to act and somebody has to lead."

IMPD Chief Rick Hite said his department has looked in every "nook and cranny" to allocate resources to patrols, but he said more funding was needed.

When Ballard took office in 2007, he had the gift of a 65% increase in the local income tax rate that generated nearly $90 million a year in additional tax revenues for public safety passed by a Democratic-controlled council and signed into law by former Mayor Bart Peterson. The so-called Peterson Plan upon which he got elected actually promised better, more efficient government without raising taxes. Indianapolis taxpayers were promised more police officers on the street--at least 100 to be exact. Peterson had also promised millions of dollars in annual savings in public safety by merging the sheriff's law enforcement responsibilities with the former Indianapolis Police Department, which never materialized.

Ballard, for his part, actually campaigned against that 2007 tax increase and even lobbied the state legislature to repeal the property tax after he eked out an upset victory due to voter anger over paying higher taxes. The first thing Ballard did as mayor was reward the FOP with a new contract with its biggest pay boosts in years after getting back control of the department from the sheriff. He then turned the reins of the police department over to his public safety director to run, washing his hands of any responsibility for public safety. Ballard then pilfered the balance of the additional tax revenues from the Peterson tax increase to pad the TIF slush funds he has relied upon to dole out more than a half billion dollars in public subsidies to his campaign contributors for their private real estate development projects. Not one single police officer was hired after your taxes were raised 65% for that very purpose in 2007. Not one additional police officer was hired, even as he raised taxes tens of millions of dollars annually to support the spending of the Capital Improvement Board on the billionaire sports team owners. In fact, the total number of police officers has actually fallen under Ballard's tenure as mayor.

Ballard, Riggs, Hite, the FOP leadership and every City-County Council member who say they are supporting a tax increase this year to hire additional police officers are straight up lying to you. Every dime of these additional tax dollars are needed to pay for the new contract Ballard has already promised the FOP, and the bulk of these additional dollars are required to enter into a public-private partnership with a foreign company to build, operate and maintain a new criminal justice system that will be officially approved no later than January of next year. Additional payments that will be required to be paid to the private operator will consume the rest of the $25 million a year from this latest proposed tax increase, and then some, that the administration claims it needs to hire 100 to 200 new officers. The proposal isn't even palpable on its face, but the management of the Indianapolis Star, the Indianapolis Business Journal, and each of the four television news stations have already met behind closed doors and agreed to put on a full court press to win approval of this tax increase this year. There will be no equal time for dissenting viewpoints. It will be just one propaganda piece after another chocked full of nothing but lies. You will have only false choices: Vote for higher taxes or be labeled an obstructionist opposed to providing adequate funding for public safety.

You threw the bums out in 2007 for lying to you, and the bums you replaced them with reneged on all of their campaign promises. Will you be fooled again? If they want more money for police officers, make the lying SOBs take the money out of the $120 million a year they're diverting from local government in property tax revenues each year to their TIF slush funds. If public safety is their number one priority, then make them choose public safety over the hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks they've been giving to their campaign contributors the past seven years. Don't let them have their cake and eat it too. The fact of the matter is that these people could give damn less about your public safety. Until they fear for their political lives, they will continue their panhandling ways that are no better than the bums on the streets downtown they spend too much time complaining about.

As a concerned taxpayer and Indianapolis resident I call for the immediate termination and dissolution of all TIF districts in Indianapolis and the return of these monies and revenue streams to the city’s general fund so that appropriate spending may be made for public safety without raising additional taxes. Maybe we need a referendum so the public can decide. Or perhaps we can find a Judge with clear vision. There is precedent. We are not the only city facing budget shortfalls caused by tif zones run amuck. A federal court will hear a challenge to St Louis tif zones as “a diversion scheme for development” at the cost of maintaining funding for police, and in Clemson, SC the Courts have just ordered the city’s tif zones dissolved for “violating the underlying spirit” of the tif law enacted. Mayor Ballard has diverted enough money from public safety and our taxes have already been raised. Its time change our priorities in the way our money is spent. Enough money for the Simons and for the Pacers. Enough money for Georgia Street and every cockamamie idea the capital improvement board comes up with. Enough building out parking lots into hotels and apartments for Lilly. And I’m pretty sure we just built the Hulman family a solar array. We don’t need new taxes. We just need to spend our money better, and we can’t trust anyone in the Mayor’s office to make these decisions for us. Somehow the city’s general fund needs to be restored and management of it given over to someone who has not been seduced by the dark side.

You can put a million cops on the streets,but as long as Curry gives these animals pleas and the judges let them out early it all means nothing. More cops are not the solution, keeping these gutter rats in jail is.

If more cops were the answer, then Detroit would be the safest city in America. They have a thousand more cops than Indy with a population considerably smaller than Indianapolis. It's just a ruse for raising taxes. Same old game. Been there, done that. Wake up, people.

Regarding Anon 8:21: The day of Officer Renn's murder, a Facebook user posted a remark stating that Curry was to blame for the murder of Perry Renn due to (I recap allegations best as I can) charges of Curry's early prisoner releases, defendant plea deals, and in Curry not keeping convicts in jails and off the streets. A huge majority disagreed with that assertion which, to me, seemed to be aimed at averting any responsibility being placed where it probably rests.... Greg Ballard and the City Councilors of BOTH parties that robbed tax monies through scurrilous TIF scheming. Greg Ballard's oft stated goal of "public safety" took a back seat while he instead pushed for support for his asinine cricket arena, millionaire sports team owner funding, rarely used bicycle lanes, etc., and many of these schemes drain money from "public safety".

I am no fan of Mr. Curry but to blame Prosecutor Curry is to willingly suspend reality and to close ones eyes to the actual reasons Indianapolis is fast becoming the new Detroit.

Do people not see the pattern across the country since 9/11...Follow Dr. Hare's writings on psycho-sociopaths and more. The writing's been on the wall for every war and every agenda...since time began. What do we do...civil suit. Can't wait to see who is announcing to wipe this out for the Administration...Sit tight..It's coming.

Curry's prosecution policies haven't changed all that much from his predecessor, who made decisions on whether to charge a person with a crime based on campaign contributions, friendship with defense attorneys or just about anything other than the law.

Don't let the judges off the hook either. I've heard some of them blame the prosecutor's office as well for agreeing to lenient plea deals, but I don't see them rejecting those plea deals if they think they are too lenient, or at least calling attention to them. They're to blame as well for handing out lenient sentences.

Ballard has done absolutely nothing to improve public safety. He spent his first 6 years in office taking credit for supposedly lowering the crime rate while allowing the number of police officers to fall through attrition. Why did fewer police officers produce lower crime rates two years ago but now we're being told the opposite? The man speaks with a forked tongue.

I have my concerns that there have been some high-profile incidents of late staged for PR purposes in pushing this tax increase now. There are some very screwy things going on in some of these high-profile shootings. I have some real trust issues, particularly with this grossly incompetent police chief Frank Straub brought in from Baltimore before getting run out of town, along with the payoffs being made to this Ten Point Coalition group of hucksters on the elusive promise of delivering black votes to Ballard. Don't forget that IMPD knew this kid who shot Trapuzzano had broken into that gun store and got away with dozens of high-powered guns and did nothing about it. They were practically holding his hand while he went on a lengthy crime spree. It's a pretty good bet that he hasn't been charged with most of the crimes he committed while he was intentionally allowed to roam the streets when he was supposed to be under house arrest.

Oh, and Abdul the Tool says he's willing to pay higher taxes for more police in his latest column as a paid mouthpiece for Ballard. Umm, Abdul, unless you're planning to become an Indianapolis resident and stop claiming a residence in Illinois, you aren't going to pay any of those higher taxes so take your load of bull and shove it where the sun don't shine.

So Gary, let me get this straight...you are now blaming the FOP for this admins. policies and money spending? ( "Every dime of these additional tax dollars are needed to pay for the new contract Ballard has already promised the FOP....") I am pretty certain the FOP is not consulted with when the Mayor makes a decision. I think that the FOP represents the officers...and I also think that those officers deserve a raise. Not sure why you decided to add FOP in your anti Ballard rant....just saying

The FOP supported the 2007 tax increase and then endorsed Ballard for mayor when they saw he had a chance of winning. They negotiated their new contract, which was fine, but they sat by idly for years while money the public safety tax increase promised for at least 100 new police officers was spent elsewhere. It wasn't until their contracted raise was put at risk through a shell game they know the Mayor is playing with city finances that they jumped on board the call for yet another tax increase. They know that this tax increase will not support adding 100 to 200 additional police officers on a permanent basis given the long-term budget constraints, particularly with the added costs of the new criminal justice center which they support. Their attorney, who the gave hundreds of thousands of their members' money to defend in his homicidal drunk driving case, helped head up the bar association committee that recommended the privatized, new criminal justice center. That will costs tens of millions a year in additional payments to the private operator to support. They can't be supporting this tax increase for more police officers because they know the money won't be there for that purpose. If a pay raise is what they're really seeking for their members, then be honest and say so. Don't pretend it's all about hiring more police officers when they know this tax increase won't accomplish that objective in the long-term unless they are prepared to ask current police officers to take pay cuts.

Abdul uses his positions in the media to promote the positions of politicians who are paying him. It appears the federal payola law prohibits that but increasingly people in the media are starting to do what Abdul is doing Until prosecutions ensue, they're likely to continue.

"The FOP supported the 2007 tax increase and then endorsed Ballard for mayor when they saw he had a chance of winning."

Gary, the FOP and membership supported Ballard because of what Peterson had been doing to destroy the department. They knew Peterson's plans were all a lie and would cost more, not less, and would lower the high standards for hiring, training, and qualifications set by IPD.They also knew it would be a disaster to have IPD run by the sheriff.

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